Sex and the Censored SALOME by Richard C. Beacham N • • • I want to tell you how gratified I was by your letter . .. for its strong protest against the contemptible official tyranny that exists in England in reference to the Drama . .. The whole affair is a great triumph for the Philistines, but only a momen- tary one. We must abolish the Censor. I think we can do it . _. N -Oscar Wilde to William Archer, July 22, 1892 Salome and Hair are probably as strange bedfellows as have ever appeared on the stage, yet nevertheless, with the aid of history and the Lord Chamberlain's office(sl, the deed has been done. For if the production of Hair, a novel and self-consciously iconoclastic piece, provides the occasion of the Censorship's demise, the non-production of the wildly bizarre Salome in July, 1892, provided perhaps the most memorable and in- structive examples of its destructive function. The refusal to license Salome was significant for several reasons. The Censor at that time, a Mr. Pigott, was a Philistine of some notoriety, whose arbitrary behavior had already raised considerable protest. Bernard Shaw described him as "a walking com- pendium of vulgar insular prejudice, who, after wallowing all his life in the cheapest theatrical sentiment (he was a confirmed play-goer), had at last brought himself to a pitch of incompetence.,,1 Just prior to the Censor's action a Pari iamentary Comm ittee had held a series of hearings which took evidence from a variety of people (including the leading dramatic critics), on the advisability of abolishing the office. That honor went of course to another Parliament three quarters of a century later, but the Salome incident helped to crystalize and objectify the contemporary opposition. The proceedings were characterized by smugness, self-conceit, and irrelevance. Pigott went so far as to testify before the Committee that the Censorship merely reflected the moral taste of the public and did not dare license anything of even a slightly outrageous nature, because the office couldn't survive widespread un- popularitv.f Yet nevertheless, he clung illogically to his conception "of the English people rushing towards an abyss of national degeneration in morals and manners, and only held back on the edge of the precipice by the grasp of his strong hand."3 The Committee of 1892 came to the same comfortable conclusion reported by earlier investigations in 1853, and 1866; that the Censorship had not been unfairly exercised; that it worked well, and should be maintained. When Salome appeared, Wilde was one of the foremost writers of the day, and at the height of his artistic powers. In the previous year he had published four books, one of which, The Picture of Dorian Gray, had engendered a lively controversy and firmly established its author as an enfant terrible of English letters. Just four months before the Censor's action Wilde's play, Lady Windermere's Fan, opened and was en- joying a huge success. If the banning of Salome was noteworthy at the time, it is of course even more re- markable in retrospect. Wilde's fame as a playwright steadily increased until the scandal and trial of 1895. While its author was in prison, Salome was given its 13 Theater Published by Duke University Press